


February, 1979

by ussnicole



Series: Welcome to Suburbia [2]
Category: Of Mice & Men
Genre: Angst, Another You, Band, F/M, Homecoming, Minor Character Death, My Understandings, Never Giving Up, Second & Sebring, Songfic, messy love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-02 19:05:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11515545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ussnicole/pseuds/ussnicole
Summary: Homecoming in Suburbia.Austin never thought it'd be so hard to come home.





	1. Second & Sebring

**Author's Note:**

> Please help me decide! I will be doing a full year's worth of months, but they range from 1979 to 3019. Should I do them in month order or chronologically (by year)? I don't know, either way works. Either way the Twenty One Pilots fic will be in a different place than it is now. The order will change as I write each story.

“Austin, come on! We’re going onstage in five minutes!” Tino stuck his head around the corner to where Austin had been sitting, checking in on his friend. “You alright?” Austin shook his head slightly and then looked up at Tino.

“What? Oh, yeah, I’m fine.” Clambering to his feet, Austin followed Tino out to the main room backstage. Maneuvering around the mismatched, sparse furniture, Austin passed his lucky microphone back and forth between his sweaty hands. From backstage they could hear the crowd, all five friends gathered together and listening to the people filling the venue: Austin, Tino, Aaron, Alan, and Phil. Austin was the only one noticeably nervous; the rest were at ease and even excited. Alan flipped a pick between his fingers, chatting easily with Aaron, who was trying to keep his hair out of his face. Tino was trying to show Phil how to spin a drumstick. Austin just slumped down on the back of the worn out couch and wiped his face with his hand.

“Dude, you look like you’re about to pass out.” Austin looked up, surprised to see his whole band drawn around him. Alan had spoken and he looked at his friend nervously; everyone knew what day it was.

“Do you think you’ll be able to sing tonight?” Aaron asked carefully, gauging Austin’s reaction. Austin just sighed and then shrugged at them.

“It’ll be okay.”

“You guys are on!” A venue worker stuck his head into the room, waiting long enough to see them moving towards the stage before he was hurrying off. The group did one more huddle before hitting the stage.

“Are you ready guys?” Phil cried, grinning at the group. “First hometown show!”

Together they cheered and then raced out to the stage where the crowd greeted them with cheers.

Austin was exhausted and on the verge of tears when they had finished their set. Since Of Mice & Men was not yet a well-known band, they were the opening act for the night and their set was fairly short. They were able to cool off backstage and watch the other bands from the wings, which is how four out of the five members spent the rest of the evening. Austin spent it dry heaving in the bathroom and then sobbing on the couch.

He knew all too well what day it was.

He hoped that he was making her proud.

Hoping did nothing to help him feel better when he visited his old house though. Nothing had changed, which almost made Austin feel worse. The rickety old house he had lost teeth and innocence in was still standing on the corner of Second and Sebring, the rusty chain link fence still protecting the dead lawn, the white paint peeling off the front door. It wasn’t much of a childhood, Austin recalled as he stood on the corner looking at the house. His single mother worked three jobs and still struggled to pay the bills and keep food on the table, but she had loved Austin and he had loved her. It was no surprise that when she was diagnosed with Marfan syndrome, they didn’t have the money for treatments or surgery. It was no surprise that she died. But Austin was still reeling. He had left town shortly after the funeral with his band to get away from the memories, but the rest of them had no reason to stay away. They hadn’t lost so much here.

They hadn’t had their only family ripped away from them because they were poor.

“Austin?”

A voice behind him pulled Austin from his thoughts, and he turned to see a short blonde girl with roller skates on. He almost laughed, the sight was so familiar.

“Heather?”


	2. My Understandings

“What are you doing back in town? Last time I saw you, you told me that you were never coming back!” Heather had skated forward towards Austin, but she kept her distance. Austin could see tears swimming in her eyes, threatening to fall down her cheeks. Her long hair was blowing slightly in the wind and Austin leaned against the fence to his old house heavily, speechless as he watched her. “You broke my heart when you left,” she whispered, voice barely audible. Austin sighed, scrubbing his eyes with his hands before pushing himself off from the fence and stepping towards her. Heather put her arms out to ward him off but caved after a second, and Austin pulled her into his chest, hugging her tightly.

“I missed you,” he admitted into her hair, closing his eyes as Heather finally hugged him back.

“You left me,” Heather sobbed, crying into Austin’s shoulder and leaning into him. She slipped a little on her skates and Austin righted her, sighing as he rubbed her shoulders. She shivered, her light jacket doing little to protect her from the cold. Austin shrugged off his leather jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders and then sighed again.

“I’m back now.”

“I have to get home,” Heather said, pulling Austin’s jacket around her appreciatively. She eyed his bare arms and went to hand the jacket back, but he just waved her away and began to walk beside her. “Do you want to come by for a while?”

“I’d love to. You still live on Arlington?”

“Yeah. Nothing has really changed since you left.” At this, Austin laughed dryly and looked around. The streets were all so familiar, every crack in the sidewalk and stop sign.

“It seems like everything froze,” he confessed, looking back to Heather. She avoided eye contact, focusing on her skates.

“It seemed like it, without you.”

Austin’s eyes blurred as Heather softly spoke, and he realized he was crying. He reached out to Heather and stopped her for a second, wiping his eyes quickly.

“I couldn’t stay. Everything was _wrong_ , and upside down, and had I stayed I would have ended up drunk or drugged or dead. I didn’t want to leave you, Heather, I swear. I never wanted to leave you.” Heather initiated the hug this time, wrapping her arms around his torso and rubbing his back soothingly. They stood on the sidewalk for a while, crying together until the cold drove them onward.


	3. Another You

Heather’s house was a welcome respite from the cold. She lived alone with her mother still, just as she had before Austin had left. Heather’s mom was delighted to see Austin, although she did pull him aside to scold him about leaving town so abruptly.

“It broke her heart to see you go,” the kind woman whispered, but she followed her words with a hug that Austin readily reciprocated. Heather finished unlacing her skates and then led Austin up to her room where they sat on the bed and went through old photo albums. They got to one of the two of them grinning in front of the house on Second and Sebring – Austin’s old house – and Heather paused.

“No one’s moved in since you left. It’s just empty.”

“It’s mine. Mom left it to me in her will. I didn’t even know she had a will,” Austin confessed, pulling the key out of his pocket. “I was thinking about going in and seeing it, but I chickened out and then you came along. I don’t know if I can face it.” Heather watched the key in Austin’s hand as it swung back and forth silently. Austin regarded it warily, a million memories attached to such an innocuous item. Austin suddenly stood, pacing back and forth. Heather followed him with her eyes now, still silent.

“I wish there was something anyone could say to just make this all okay. It’s just… I feel so empty. She was my only family, you know? I mean, you do, of course. It’s just you and your mom. When she died – well, it felt like I had no one,” Austin told her, rushing to add, “Of course, I knew I had you. But I just couldn’t face anyone after the funeral. Ask Alan, or Tino, Phil, or Aaron. I was a mess.”

Finally, Heather broke her silence to say, “Do you want me to go over to the house with you after dinner? You will stay for dinner, won’t you?”

“Of course.”

Truth be told, Austin hadn’t had an honest to God home cooked meal since his mother had died, and so sitting down to pork chops, apple sauce, and green beans was like sitting down to a dinner for kings with a side of nostalgia and a bit of homesickness for something that no longer existed. Austin almost had to leave the table when Heather’s mother brought out the food, but Heather grabbed his hand under the table and he clung to her as he tried not to cry.

After dinner, the two of them pulled on warmer coats and then walked over to Austin’s house. The route (Arlington to 2nd, left on 2nd, straight down to Sebring) was all too familiar to Austin and Heather, who had walked it at least a few thousand times. Heather walked up to the gate and forward to the porch, but Austin stopped right where the property line met the sidewalk and paused. Reluctantly he followed as Heather gestured for him to bring the key, and he unlocked the door slowly.

The house was musty and had a fine layer of dust; it had been a little over a year since anyone had been inside. The door opened to reveal a small entryway with a coat closet that led to a narrow hallway. Together, hands intertwined, Austin and Heather walked down the hall, looking at the dusty photographs framed and hung on the walls. Austin didn’t notice he was crying again until Heather reached up and wiped a few stray tears off his face.

“I can still hear her voice, calling for me to come to dinner or to stop singing on the top of my lungs,” he whispered, trailing his fingers along the wall. “Sometimes I forget she’s really gone.”

“She was amazing.”

“I really miss her.”

“I know. I do too.”


	4. You're Not Alone

Austin came by Heather’s house the next day, a bouquet of flowers from the grocery store hidden behind his back. Heather’s mom answered the door and ushered him in, sending him up to her room. She was still in bed when he knocked lightly, poking his head in. Heather smiled, waving him in as she sat up against her pillows.

“How are you doing?” Austin asked as he handed her the flowers, grinning as she buried her nose in them and inhaled.

“Alright. How are you? After yesterday, I mean,” Heather responded, placing the flowers next to her bed and then looking back to Austin. He sat on the edge of her bed and shrugged.

“It was hard, but it was something I had to do. And you know what I meant, Heather. How _are_ you?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Well… it was really hard after you left. I didn’t really tell anyone else. It’s not like you can just go up to everyone and introduce yourself like that. ‘Hi, my name’s Heather. I’m sad all the time. What’s your name?’” Heather pulled at her long, feathered hair while avoiding eye contact. “I felt… really alone. And I’m not blaming you! After you left, I realized that I had spent so much time with you – you’re my best friend, after all – and all the other friendships I had weren’t very good. No one was ever there to help me out.”

“God, I feel so bad about leaving. I mean, part of it was because of the band, the boys, but we didn’t need to leave then. I begged them, and we packed up the van. It’s a small miracle we did as good as we did. But I missed you so much,” Austin told Heather, holding one of her hands in his. She smiled slightly, patting his hand with her own.

“I’m really proud of you guys for doing what you always wanted. I missed the show the other day because I didn’t hear about it in time, but I’d love to see you play. How long are you in town?” Heather kept her expression neutral, but Austin could hear the reluctant hopefulness in her voice, telling him she didn’t want him to leave.

“Until summer. This was the last show we opened for, and the next tour we go on will take us all the way around the states.” He met her eyes; it was still February. That gave them three months to catch up – unless…

“I’ve always wanted to travel. It just seems so exciting. I’m sure anywhere would be better than here,” Heather mused, glancing out the window. There was no snow, but it was a crisp morning and frost lined the windowsill.

“Heather, I want you to come with me. It’s not really glorious – we’re just in two vans – but I don’t want to leave you behind again.” Austin looked at her eagerly, a smile stretching across his face. Sure, he hadn’t passed this by his band mates yet, but they would say yes. He was sure of it.

“Austin…”

“Please? I don’t want you to be alone anymore.”


End file.
